ice cold
by niagaraweasel
Summary: Companion piece to "on the outside", but works as a standalone, too. No matter where Alex goes, trouble seems to follow. Doesn't leave him many options, does it? One-shot.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Alex Rider and intend no copyright infringement. **

_**A/N: Co-written with cedricsowner. We're developing a longer story about Alex after Scorpia Rising. The story will be set in San Francisco, CA and deal with him finding his way into a new life with new challenges, friends and enemies. Somehow at the moment bits and pieces that kind of belong to that story but are not really part of it come up… we're having fun with them.. maybe you do, too. **_

"You dragged me out to the beach, dude, and put me on a surfboard, so it's only fair."

Alex would have pointed out to Junior that a beach was quite the natural place to be at the height of summer, considering they happened to reside in California… while an icy surface definitely wasn't.

…if he hadn't been too busy trying to stay on his feet. Damn it, on TV ice-skating had always looked much easier… his uncle had taught him many things, not to mention the stuff he had learned on his own, during his missions… ice-skating, however, had somehow never been part of the pudding.

Thank God, otherwise he'd probably have a nice, anonymous grave in some backwater part of the world right now.

Junior was circling him in broad, elegant curves, effortlessly changing direction and speed at will. While he had looked like a fish on a bike trying to get on his board at Pacifica/Lindamar, he was now definitely in his natural habitat.

The same couldn't exactly be said of Alex.

For heaven's sake, how did Junior manage to slide like that? He looked like a graceful bird, a crane or something, practically sailing over the Cow Palace's deserted ice-hockey rink. The fact that he wore no protection gear at all while Alex felt padded like the Michelin Man with his helmet, elbow pads, knee guards and all, didn't exactly help diminishing his feeling of inferiority.

Ah well, yesterday he had had a bit of fun at Junior's expense, now it was the other way around.

Suddenly Junior gathered speed, started skating backwards and changed to gliding on one foot only. Alex was still trying to figure out how in the world he was managing that when his friend, completely beating gravity, jumped upwards, twisted his body around through a 540° arc and landed again with a swish of his skates, still on one foot.

Flailing about to remain upright at all and not crash down on the ice again, Alex shook his head in disbelief. "Where the hell did you learn that? Don't know much about ice hockey but that didn't look like a classical move to me."

"By letting his team down…", an angry voice behind them suddenly said.

Alex and Junior both wheeled around, Alex barely keeping his balance.

Two boys of roughly their age had approached them while Junior had performed his stunt and Alex had watched him.

Damn, they had let their guard down.

Just like Junior the two boys had no trouble at all moving on the ice and also just like him they had broad shoulders and were in general of muscular built, although a bit meatier than him. The way they carried themselves, shoulders squared, hands balled into fists, jaws set, didn't leave much wriggling room for interpretation: The boys definitely meant trouble.

"We were just about to leave", Junior told them.

Alex couldn't believe his ears. What? His friend was turning tail?

"Haven't seen you around in a while, _Ashley_. Bet you thought we'd be away since there's no team practice scheduled at the moment…" The boys kept advancing on them.

_Ashley?_ Apparently they meant Junior, but as far as Alex knew from school his official name was Christopher, not Ashley.

_Ash… _The simple sound sent a shiver down his spine.

"Looks like I was wrong", Junior said. "You guys really got nothing better to do than still brood about that ancient shit? Well, I definitely do… come on Alex, let's go."

Alex was still confused, on the one hand by the name thing, but more importantly by his friend's odd behavior. In the course of the ordeal with the terrorists he had struck him as everything but a coward.

"You don't really think we'll just let you leave, do you?" The slightly smaller boy smirked, round faced, with oddly bushy eyebrows, as if he had singed them off while playing with his chemistry set at one point in time.

"Then at least leave him out of it, he's got nothing to do with this", Junior said through clenched teeth, nodding in Alex' direction.

"No way I'm gonna leave here without you", Alex replied immediately. What the hell was Junior thinking?

"You sure you wanna sacrifice your pretty face for this backstabber?" the bigger boy scoffed in Alex' direction. His military haircut unfavorably stressed his oddly egg-shaped head. "He's nothing but a rat, knows no loyalty… you should choose your friends wiser."

Alex puffed himself up to reply something along the lines of _I choose my friends myself, thank you very much_, but the military haircut boy apparently wasn't interested in any kind of answer. He violently shoved Alex aside, sending him to the ground with a heavy thump.

Thanks to all his protection gear it didn't even hurt, but in the few seconds it took him to orientate himself, the attackers had skated past him and jumped Junior.

Who didn't defend himself.

Again Alex felt he couldn't believe what he was witnessing. Junior knew how to fight, he had seen it firsthand, why the hell didn't he…? Damn it, the smaller one was holding him while the other one punched him straight in the gut!

Alex knew he had to do something, but with his feet firmly clad in the darn skates there was no chance in hell he could interfere… he'd end up skidding like a beetle on his back again…

Wait a minute….

Alex curled himself into a tight ball, used the toe picks of his skates to push himself forward – and knocked both the boys and Junior off their feet like pins on a bowling alley.

As soon as he had the attackers on their backs they were finally on equal footing. Alex wasted no time. He threw himself on the bigger boy, grabbed his arm, twisted it around and thus pinned him firmly onto the ice. "One more move and your lower arm bone will snap. That means surgery and at least three months of rehab!"

Alex knew a thing or two about rehab and his voice left no doubt about that.

Unfortunately it didn't stop the smaller boy from tackling him from behind anyway. Damn, he knew where the protection gear had its weak points. Hit on the shoulder by a severe impact, Alex had to let go of the other boy's arm and now found himself pinned to the ground.

Military hair cut boy balled his fist, clearly aiming for a punch straight into Alex' face. Alex tried to twist out of the way, but eyebrow boy knew how to hold someone solidly. Hair cut's fist came shooting towards him…

… Junior, coming out of nowhere, intercepted the blow, twisted hair cut's arm around and pressed the sharp blade of one of his skates against the boy's bare skin.

"You know what kind of injury this would leave", he snarled at him.

"This would get you into so much trouble, no horde of expensive lawyers in the world would get you out of it." Hair cut was breathing heavily.

"Wanna try, Simon? I imagine it would leave an impressive scar… 'kay, all the blood and pain wouldn't be easy to stomach, but think of the stories you could tell the girls… unless of course the blade damages some nerves… then you wouldn't be able to move your arm anymore…" Junior spoke very quietly, holding Simon with the military haircut down with an iron grip.

Alex recognized the tone of his voice. He himself had used it only moments earlier, when threatening to break the boy's arm.

"Leave, Ash, and don't come back", the smaller boy panted. "Just leave."

Simon grunted in agreement.

Junior helped Alex to his feet first before he finally let go of the boy.

Neither of them said a single word till they had left the Cow Palace for good.

"You didn't defend yourself because you're agreeing with them, right?" Alex finally stated. "You think you deserved it. What the hell did you do?"

"I was a member of their ice-hockey team and didn't take part in an important match. They lost. Ruined the team's future."

Alex actually had to stop dead in his tracks. "Seriously? THAT'S it? You really think you deserve A BEATING because of a lost _ice hockey match_?" He didn't need to spell it out, what he was trying to say was pretty clear.

_You and I know how to snap bones and cut nerves for a reason. _

Junior looked at him… seemed to want to say something… then just nodded after a moment. He didn't need to spell it out either.

_Yeah, after all they'd been through lost ice hockey matches were indeed a somewhat minor matter._

"Maybe in the future we should do something we both are capable of", he finally said.

"Something without any potential dangers", Alex agreed.

… … …

When Edward Pleasure came home that afternoon he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing on his deck.

"What in the world are you two doing?"

"It was your idea", Alex shrugged, stifling a smile. "You said I should hang out with someone."

"It's a glorious summer day in Northern California, you two are sixteen years old and your idea of hanging out is to play checkers on a deck in a suburb? What comes next, bingo night at the local senior center?"

But then he suddenly stopped, as if something was dawning on him and yes, realization showed on his face, as he retreated into the house.

"Looks like he understands", Junior mused. "Seems to be a decent guy."

"Yeah", Alex said. "Yeah, he is."


End file.
